The Ruined Path
by ScottyMengele
Summary: As we follow the lead of our protagonist, everything goes well until a horrible event occurs. He tries to fix and correct the ruined world as it is, but it's too dangerous. He needs more help to accomplish this goal. It's until he meets a certain group of "special" individuals.
1. Chapter 1: Tragedy Falls

**Hello, this is going to be my very first story that I've written. I've written a fair share of stories in the past, but this is my first time trying to make a legit fanfiction. I don't know the good ways or bad ways to write one though. I just hope that this can provide you with at the very least some entertainment and that it won't be a complete waste of time for you. Any suggestions or even constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks!**

 ***I do not own the Pokemon**

Chapter 1: Tragedy Falls

Today is the day I start my Pokemon journey! But I honestly feel kinda late to the party... meaning that I'm 17 now just starting my Pokemon journey. My parents have always been overprotective of me and my siblings, but I'm at an age where it's good in their books for me to start my journey.

What's more is that the gym leader of Lumiose City invented something revolutionary. A device that gives Pokemon the ability of human speech. I've been waiting so long to try it!

Oh man! I can't wait to test this! Now I'm off to Professor Sycamore's lab to get my starter. My first step out the door was greeted by a vast excitement. I go on my way towards the Professor's lab in such a jolly way that the people passing by give me strange looks. But I can't possibly get upset with this big ugly grin on my face now can't I?

I finally reach the lab and call out to the Professor.

"Professor Sycamore! Are you here?" I called to him in a very loud voice.

"Yes, yes! I'm here, I'm here!" shouted the Professor as he ran down the stairs.

"Hey, Professor! I'm here to receive my starter Pokemon!" I said excitedly.

"Alright, Alright. Have you decided which Pokemon you want? Chespin, Fennekin, or maybe Froakie?" asked the Professor.

"Hmm… I guess I'll ha-" *BOOM*

Before I could finish my sentence, a loud noise that sounded like an explosion interrupted me.

"What's going on here?!" I shouted in panic.

"I don't know. Let's go outside and find out." said the Professor.

As both of us stepped out the door, we saw something that we couldn't believe…

Random bombings started to happen as the clear blue sky quickly turned black with smoke and fire. Terrorists? There was a mass panic, people were running everywhere.

"We should find a safe place to hide, now!" exclaimed the Professor as we both ran back into the lab. However, before we got anywhere, something crashed through the roof and exploded. While it didn't do too much damage, the force of the explosion was enough to send me flying out the lab and landing me on the street, and separating me from the Professor.

Before I could get up, another explosion happened nearby. Before I knew it, a piece of debris was hurled at me with immense speed. As it hit my leg, all I could feel was an agonizing pain and that something was broken. I lay there, finding it difficult to get up and escape with a broken leg. In the midst of fire spreading everywhere, a group of figures started walking towards me.

"P-please... help m-me..." I said with all my strength with the suffocating smoke around.

"As if any of us are going to help little brats like you" said one of them.

They came up to me and kicked my bad leg. While I was down on the ground, they kept kicking me and some even got pieces of debris to bat me with. I see things going black, as I still felt those figures beating on me. When they were done, they all spit on me and walked away like this catastrophic situation was nothing. All I could see before I blacked out, was some sort of emblem on those figures clothing. An emblem all too familiar to everyone, Team Flare...

Where am I...? It's dark... But I feel a warm sensation. I start to feel sweat pour down my face. It's actually kinda hot now... pretty uncomfortable.

As I try to find my way around a light shines in the distance. Of course, I walk towards it to find out what it is. If only I knew that this light was simply the natural human function of opening my eyes when waking up.

As I open my eyes, all I see is a blazing fire so close to my face that I could have roasted my face off.

"Whoaa!" I shouted as I jumped away.

"Oh, I see that you're awake. Good morning" said a voice that I don't recognize.

A peculiar looking guy like this was sitting next to me while I slept?

"Sup, my name is Mitz. Nice to meet ya" he said.

"Umm… wha-" was all I could say before I was cut off.

"Shh… I suppose you have a lot of questions to ask, but before I tell you, you should go back to lying down" Mitz said.

I didn't know at first, but now I realize that I'm putting a lot of pressure on my bad leg, along with a large wave of pain coming into my senses.

"Aarrrgh…!" I grunted with pain.

"Cmon, let me help you" said Mitz as he helped me lay down again.

"Thanks… now that I'm laying down, can you tell me what's going on now?" I asked him as I got into a comfortable position.

"First of all, do you know where we are currently?" he asked me.

I looked around, but it wasn't all that familiar. We were in some sort of camp, along with many other people, but that was it… Wait… In the distance I see something… A city… torn to pieces?

"Is… is that Lumiose City…?" I asked him not wanting to believe it was true.

"...Yes, that is indeed, our Lumiose City, now in ruins…" Mitz said in a gloomy tone.

"What happened?! What about my family, or the professor, anyone?!" I shouted.

"... I'm sorry… But, your family is gone. While we were taking care of you, we saw your ID and went back to check if you had any family in the city. We found the address, but the scene we saw there was… brutal. Everyone there was killed, with blood splatters along the interior. As for the Professor, nobody was able to find him, or remains of him, so we hopefully assume that he escaped as well." explained Mitz.

Those words didn't make sense to me at the moment. My family… dead? Brutally killed…? I started crying profusely.

"I'm sorry, but all you can do along with the rest of us is to continue our lives in this refugee camp. We're along the outskirts of the city in a clearing between a dense forest. We should be safe for a long while" Mitz said.

I tried to stop crying to some extent.

"Alright…" I complied with tears still running down my face.

It was an awkward silence now, with the only sound of the fire crackling along with the voices of others and some Pokemon in the camp. To break the silence, Mitz asked me "So… how bad does your leg feel? We don't have any medical professional here, so all we could do was make you a makeshift splint. You think you would have gotten better with how long you were out, but I guess the healing process is longer than that".

"Wait… how long was I unconscious?" I asked him.

"Hmm… we can't make an exact length, but it's estimated that you were out for at least a week and a half. When we found you, we couldn't even distinguish if you were a person or not. Your injuries were that bad, but it was a miracle that you're alive and in front of me" Mitz said.

"What? A week and a half and the situation hasn't gotten any better? What about the police, or the government? What are they doing in this situation?!" I asked angrily.

"Hmm… I'm afraid the police and government won't be here to help anyone this time" Mitz said.

"What? Why not? Isn't it their job to fix this situation we're all in? Why would they ignore us and let us die?" I asked still angry.

"No no no no no, you misunderstand. There is no more police and government. They're practically nonexistent now thanks to those terrorists…" Mitz said clearing it up.

"That's ludicrous, how can terrorists take down the police and the whole government?" I asked Mitz confused.

"These are not your ordinary terrorists, man. The whole world is in shambles, and every region is in the same state. They're something more than terrorists." Mitz said.

"That's right! Before I blacked out, I saw what looked like Team Flare… could it be…?" I asked.

"Yes you think correctly. Not only Team Flare, but all the other criminal syndicates have formed an alliance against the world. They were sick and tired of having a random ass kid coming in and completely wrecking them. So I guess they all snapped and started committing terrorism along with other non respectable actions. Not only do they terrorize and kill, they have their Pokemon do it too." Mitz explained.

"Why is this happening…" I asked nobody without expecting an answer.

As I sit there assessing the mass amount of information given to me by Mitz, a figure walked up to us.

"Yo, Mitz. I need you to help me with something" said the other person.

"Alright, sure" Mitz said as he got up to talk to him.

"I see that our friend has woken up. Let me introduce myself, I'm Tad." he said in a welcoming voice.

"He's also my older brother" Mitz added.

"Nice to meet you too. So what's going on? If it's something I can help with, it would be a pleasure" I replied.

"Ahaha… I appreciate it, but I don't think you could do this task with those injuries of yours." Tad said.

"What's the job, then?" I asked kind of disappointed.

"Well, occasionally now and then, we send people into the city to scavenge for any supplies or food. You might be thinking that it's too dangerous, but we have food shortages. The berries in the environment along with our farms can't sustain the amount of people and Pokemon we have here." Tad explained.

"Don't worry, I got my trusty partner here, Talonflame" Mitz said as he released it from the pokeball.

"Talonflame!" it shouted making an entrance.

"Cool… believe it or not… I have yet to have a Pokemon of my own…" I said embarrassed.

"Really? When we saw your ID, it said you were 17. You could've started your journey at 10." questioned Tad.

"I'm a bit late to the party" I informed them.

"Come to think of it, we didn't find any pokeballs on or near you when we found you" Mitz realized.

"Hmm… there could be a possibility that you could get a Pokemon here" Tad suggested.

As Tad finished that sentence, he just walked off into the distance. Mitz and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. I could hear Tad's voice in the distance, it was like he was negotiating something. When it seemed like he was done, he came back with something in his arms. It was a Mawile.

"Hey, this Mawile could be your first Pokemon if you want" Tad said.

"But isn't that the wild Mawile that helps us gather berries and herbs from the forest? We can't just take her, the people adore her" Mitz said as he confronted Tad.

"Calm down, Mawile helps us, yes, but I know that she would rather be with a trainer and fight. I'll just have some of my Pokemon help in her stead" Tad compromised.

"If she wanted to be with a trainer, why didn't she have one in all this time?" I asked, the idea making no sense.

"See, most of the people in this camp are either too young or too old to be trainers. Some just don't even want to be one. As for the existing trainers here, they'd rather not deal with a Mawile that has 0 experience fighting. This Mawile is the weakest Pokemon here currently." Mitz explained.

"But she has a lot of potential I can tell. You can make her stronger" Tad added.

As it seems like everything's fine, I just nodded my head and accepted the Mawile as the first Pokemon in my team. Tad and Mitz looked pretty happy, that Mawile could find a trainer. Tad let go of the Mawile and told her that I was her new trainer. At that moment, she came running towards me and hugged me. I look into her red eyes and I could tell that we had some sort of connection even though we had never met before.

"Hi there, Mawile. I know we're both inexperienced as trainer and Pokemon, but I hope we can get along and make the most of it." I said with a comforting voice.

"Maw!" the Mawile said happily.

So now I finally have a Pokemon. This would have been the best day of my life, but I forgot. The world we're living in right now.


	2. Chapter 2: Firestarter

**Sorry for the wait and for a pretty short chapter. School is going on right now and time is something that I don't have a lot of. Still, I hope you can enjoy this one. I promise the next one will be longer.**

Chapter 2: Firestarter

A week has went by since I've been brought to this camp and I'm already feeling a better. However, my body is still sore and aches a lot, but I can push through it. Since then, I've went out on two jobs along with Mitz out into the city. The city is pretty dangerous, but we can get by as long we are extra cautious. On the two jobs that I've done, there was at least one group of Team Flare we had to fight off. Luckily, they were just grunts with the same Pokemon for all of them. Mitz and I just got used to the same match up over and over again. But so far, everything is going pretty well. Despite there not being so much supplies or food left in the city, every little thing helps. The camp is slowly growing everyday as one or little groups of people join. Having more people is always merrier, it's like we're all a big family. However, more people means we need more food, so Mitz and I along with all the other trainers have to work harder. I just hope the run we're going on today is a good one.

"You ready?" asked Mitz.

"Yeah, let's go" I said with confidence.

We both stealthily walk into the city and hide behind the mountains of rubble. From the moment we set foot in the city, we already saw multiple grunts patrolling around. It honestly makes no sense to me. They ruined the city, but why are they still occupying it? There has to something bigger going on that none of us know. Aside from rolling from cover to cover and playing hide and seek, we were also trying to eavesdrop on the grunts to see if we could learn anything. It's a little hard to hear since we're so far away due to us not wanting to alert them by getting too close. Two grunts are conversing about something that I can barely make out.

"Man... I don't feel so good..." a grunt said while rubbing his stomach.

"I told you not to go around eating any piece of food lying around. They could be spoiled or something" lectured the other grunt.

"Yeah yeah... be right back.. Gotta take a dump" said the grunt with tummy troubles.

... Not the kind of information we were looking for... Mitz and I can't help but laugh a bit after that silly conversation. Moving on, Mitz spots a convenience store and motions me to come over. The store looks like a mess, but I hope there's at least something here.

"Damn.. got nothing here" said Mitz as we're looking through an abandoned convenience store.

"Seems like Team Flare stole about everything in this city" I said.

We looked all around every nook and cranny of the place, but found nothing that can be considered food. Feeling disappointed, we walk out in hopes of finding another store or something. Before we could go anywhere, an attack went by us with supersonic speed. We look back and see that there are two grunts with Golbats that found us.

"Team Flare...!" Mitz said with clenched teeth.

"I won't miss next time. Now, tell us where your base is" one of the grunts said with an evil grin.

"Go, Talonflame!" Mitz shouted as he threw his pokeball.

I'll do the same! "Go, Mawile!".

"Hmph! Looks like you kids got a death wish! Fine, kill them!" the grunt said as he commanded his Golbat.

"Golbat use Air Cutter!"

"Golbat use Air Cutter as well!" said the other grunt.

"Dodge and use Flame Charge!" Mitz shouted.

"Mawile, dodge and use Iron Head!".

Both our Pokemon did exactly as we told them and managed to hit at least one of the Golbats.

"Uuuuahhhhhh! You're going to pay, you brats!".

The two grunts kept using Air Cutter over and over again and managed to nick Talonflame. A little blood trailed off of where it was cut, but it was still flying around like nothing was wrong. Despite Talonflame feeling fine, Mitz was furious and decided to end it there.

"Talonflame! Destroy them!" Mitz commanded with anger in his eyes.

Talonflame swooped down and with a combination of moves, overwhelmed the two Golbats. Shortly after, the two Golbats fainted... no, they didn't faint. They look motionless on the ground. The grunts tried to return the Golbats back into the pokeball, but it wasn't working.

"You... you will pay..." one of the grunts said looking serious.

The two grunts were up to something suspicious. At the last moment, both pulled out a handgun.

"What?! Who brings a gun to a Pokemon battle?!" Mitz said.

"Us! Now you're gonna die!" the grunt said as he fired the first shot.

Both Mitz and I returned our Pokemon to prevent them from getting hurt, but in the process, Mitz got hit in the arm.

"Aaarrrggghhh!" Mitz exclaimed as he was in intense pain.

The grunts were going to shoot more, but then a shadowy figure intervened. It jumped right in front of the grunts and used a fire attack. Before they could react they were burnt to a crisp. Not just fire, explosion, and Team Rocket blasts off again, nooooo they were... Dead. Their bodies were unidentifiable. But that attack just now... It was Fire Blast, so it had to be a Pokemon.

"You kids alright?" said a female voice.

"Yeah... Thanks, but who are you..?" I asked.

The figure turned around and my eyes really opened. It was a talking Delphox wearing uniform of some sort.


End file.
